Seán Mac Diarmada Seán MacDermott | |
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| Born | (1883-01-27)27 January 1883[citation needed] Kiltyclogher,County Leitrim, Ireland |
| Died | 12 May 1916(1916-05-12) (aged 33) Kilmainham Gaol, Dublin, Ireland[1] |
| Cause of death | Execution by firing squad |
| Allegiance | Irish Republican Brotherhood Irish Volunteers |
| Years of service | 1913–1916 |
| Rank | Supreme Council IRB Military Committee IRB |
| Battles / wars | Easter Rising |
| Other work | Educator, principal, barrister, republican activist, poet |
Seán Mac Diarmada (27 January 1883 – 12 May 1916), also known asSeán MacDermott, was anIrishrepublican political activist and revolutionary leader. He was one of the seven leaders of theEaster Rising of 1916, which he helped to organise as a member of the Military Committee of theIrish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) and was the second signatory of theProclamation of the Irish Republic.[2] He was executed for his part in the Rising at age 33.
Brought up inCounty Leitrim (Kiltyclogher, Glenfarne), he was a member of many associations which promoted the cause of theIrish language,Gaelic revival andIrish nationalism in general, including theGaelic League and (early in his career) theIrish Catholic fraternity theAncient Order of Hibernians. He was the national organiser forSinn Féin, and later manager of the newspaperIrish Freedom, started in 1910 byBulmer Hobson and others.[3]
Mac Diarmada was born John MacDermott, inCounty Leitrim,[4] an area where the landscape was marked by reminders of poverty and oppression.[5] His father Donald McDermott was a member of the IRB and a friend ofJohn Daly.[6]
Surrounding Mac Diarmada in rural Leitrim, there were signs of Irish history throughout the area. There was an ancientsweat-house,Mass rocks from thepenal times and the persecutions of the 17th and 18th centuries, and deserted abodes as an aftermath of the hunger of the 1840s.[7]
He was educated at Corradoona national school.[8] In 1908 he moved toDublin, by which time he already had a long involvement in several Irish nationalist and cultural organisations, includingSinn Féin, theIrish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), theAncient Order of Hibernians and theGaelic League. He was soon promoted to the Supreme Council of the IRB and eventually elected secretary. He originally refused to join the IRB as it was condemned by theCatholic church but Bulmer Hobson convinced him otherwise.[9]
In 1910 he became manager of the radical newspaperIrish Freedom, which he founded along withBulmer Hobson andDenis McCullough. He also became a national organiser for the IRB and was taken under the wing of veteranFenianTom Clarke. Indeed, over the year the two became nearly inseparable. Shortly thereafter Mac Diarmada contractedpolio and needed a cane to walk.
MacDiarmada along with Clarke supported the workers during the1913 Dublin Lockout.[10][11]
In November 1913 Mac Diarmada was one of the original members of theIrish Volunteers, and continued to work to bring that organisation under IRB control.[12] In May 1915 Mac Diarmada was arrested inTuam,County Galway, under theDefence of the Realm Act 1914 for giving a speech against enlisting into theBritish Army during theFirst World War.[13]
Following his release in September 1915, he joined the secret Military Committee of the IRB, which was responsible for planning the rising. Indeed, Mac Diarmada and Clarke were the people most responsible for it.[14] In 1914 he said "the Irish patriotic spirit will die forever unless a blood sacrifice is made in the next few years".[15]
Due to his disability, Mac Diarmada took little part in the fighting of Easter week, but was stationed at the headquarters in theGeneral Post Office (GPO), as one of the Provisional Republican Government.[16] Following the surrender, he nearly escaped execution by blending in with the large body of prisoners. He was eventually recognised by Daniel Hoey ofG Division.[17] Following acourt-martial on 9 May, Mac Diarmada was executed by firing squad inKilmainham Gaol on 12 May at the age of 33.
In September 1919 Hoey was shot dead byMichael Collins'sSquad.[17] Likewise, the British Officer Lee-Wilson, who ordered Mac Diarmada be shot, rather than imprisoned, was also killed in Cork on Collins's order during theIrish War of Independence.
Mac Diarmada had been in regular correspondence withNell Ryan.[18] In his final letter he wrote: "Miss Ryan, she who in all probability, had I lived, would have been my wife".[19] "Min"Josephine Ryan and her sister, Phyllis, had been couriers to the GPO.[20] They also visited Kilmainham Gaol, before his execution, and managed to evade arrest. Min, a founder ofCumann na mBan, managed to escape from Ireland to America;[21] she later marriedRichard Mulcahy.
Before his execution, Mac Diarmada shared a cell with the Irish Volunteers leader from WexfordRobert Brennan who asked MacDiarmada if he was satisfied with the rising. MacDiarmada said: "I am, we put up a great fight. The lads were grand. We have awakened the old spirit. You'll see."[22] Referring to his execution he wrote, "I feel happiness the like of which I have never experienced. I die that the Irish nation might live!”[23]
Seán McDermott Street (formerly Gloucester Street) inDublin is named in his honour. So too isSligo Mac Diarmada railway station inSligo, andPáirc Seán Mac Diarmada, theGaelic Athletic Association stadium inCarrick-on-Shannon,County Leitrim. MacDiarmada Road, Athlone Co.Westmeath & Sean MacDermott tower inBallymun, demolished in 2005, were both named in honour of him. In his hometown ofKiltyclogher a statue inscribed with his final written words – see above – was erected in the village centre, and his childhood home has become aNational Monument.[24][25] The building which holds the national bus station (Busáras) and theDepartment of Social Protection is known as Áras Mhic Dhiarmada.[26]
Leitrim native Seán Fox portrayed Mac Diarmada in RTÉ's 2016 seriesRebellion.
Mick Blake, a Leitrim singer/songwriter, wrote "Sean MacDiarmada (the Pride of Corranmore)" to commemorate the centenary of the 1916 Rising. The song was commissioned by New York businessman Joseph Mc Manus.
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